Transplanting Seedlings

So we thinned out and transplanted some of the seedlings to larger containers. 

The corn in its new container:

 The corn, sunflower, and peas were transplanted to new containers, the other plants we are waiting until they are a little bit larger so that the "best" can become more obvious and they get more stable to transplant.  After the transplanting:

Berry Plants

We bought a blueberry and raspberry plants.  We planted them by the Leonard shed (if you are looking from the house into the backyard it is on the right side) opposite of where we plan to do the garden.  We didn't have to get as extensive as the bushes because there was no major root problem so we just dug and placed a top soil/peat moss combination into the hole.  The bushes:

Bushes

We got some bushes from Merrifield Garden Center to place in the corner of our patio to add some privacy between us and the neighbors.  The euonymous silver king will grow to 6' tall and 3' wide.  We got younger versions of the bush save money since they are fast growers it hopefully won't take to long to get some good privacy.  We had to get seven plants to fill the space we needed so we cleared them out of this plant.  First we had to dig almost a trench where we wanted to place the bushes to put in some good top soil and peat moss combination in the hole to give the bushes a good root environment to grow in.  The trench digging:

 One large argument and seven bushes later:

Cat Proofing the Seedlings - FAIL #2

So we already had one cat beat our attempt to cat proof.  We thought removing the shelf beneath the bay window would solve our problem.  As we are laying down to go to bed for the night we hear a paper rip and noticed we were missing a cat.  We ran upstairs and noticed callie wag in the window with only a small tear in the paper.  We took the following photos but with poor picture quality I'll give you all the pictures so get an idea of what happened.

Callie-wag (also known as Callie, Callie-wag-wizzly, Skiddily-wag, jiggity-wiggity, etc.) behind the contractor paper curtain (no flash so it looks kinda dark and hard to see):

With flash results in a demon-wag look:

 Callie-wag looking for a way out through the tear that Meow made earlier in the day (see earlier blog post for pictures):

 Callie-wag looking for way out in the bottom of the paper:

 You can almost see Callie at the bottom left hand corner after she hopped out of the paper in the hole at the top left, she flew out quickly so it was hard to get a photo.  The lower left hand corner you can see the white shelf that she used to hope above the contractor paper.  So the shelf was about a foot and a half tall, about three feet away from the contractor paper that goes about five feet tall, in other words it was an amazing leap over the contractor paper with minimal damage.

The hole Callie-wag left behind:

We moved the shelf even further away from the contractor paper and hope to make it through the night without anymore damage or mischief.  While Callie was in the bay window she didn't seem interested in the plants, more concerned with finding a way out and not having one.  Hopefully all the kitties have learned their lesson.  I view this incident as funny as hell, John is more concerned about how the plants will fair over night.  Will update if anything else interesting happens.

Cat Proofing the Seedlings

This week we struggled with a way to protect the seedlings from the cats.  Originally we just had the plastic covers on the seedlings planters which kept the cats from getting to them.  This worked for awhile until the plants got to tall to keep the plastic cover on.  Then came the cat proofing plan.  We placed the containers in the bay window and then put up some contractor paper over the bay window to prevent the cats from hopping in the bay window and eating them.

Bay window with contractor paper to protect the plants from the cats:

Thirty minutes later:

Oh well there goes that plan.

After patching up the hole we decided to move a shelf below the window that gave her a starting point to hop into the bay window so we will see how long the second version of this plan lasts.

Garden - End of Week 1

Earlier this week we took a picture of the overall planter, we have everything growing now except the peppers.

 In order from left to right is: tomatoes, peppers, corn, peppers, peas, and sunflowers.  The sunflowers seem to grow pretty quickly and in a span of days the tray planter looks like this (all the way on the left)

 Pretty soon we are going to have to take the sunflowers out and plant them in individual containers to allow them to grow a little bit before putting them outside.  We did get a few carrots to appear; they are thin and tiny so it was hard to take pictures of them.

Garden - Day 4

On Monday (Day 1 of the seedlings) we had our first sprout (a pea):

 The peas seemed to be the first to sprout because by day 3 most of the pea spots had a sprout or two.  An overall view on Day 3:

Another pea sprouting (a close up):

By day 4 we had some corn, which instead of the pea sprouts that still had the pea shell on it looked more like a furry toothpick sticking up from the soil (its hard to see in this picture):

So far the only thing that have shown signs of growing is the corn and peas.  We plan to move the indoor greenhouse to a sunny position tomorrow so those above the soil can get some sunlight.  The tallest sprout at the end of Day 4:

We bought a kit to make a raised garden bed so that we can fill it with soil.  We bought a kit at Home Depot that was made of cedar, looked more natural than the more expensive composite versions.  We decided to seal it to hopefully extend its life.  During a few of the sun shining days we stained the wood:

 The plan is to put it together in the yard so that we don't have to til and seed that section of the yard.  Speaking of the lawn...  The weather finally looks good enough to till and seed this weekend, yay! We bought seed, fertilizer and the like awhile back but its finally been good enough weather to actually do it.  Will update with pictures of the process.

Fire Pit Complete

To round out our fire pit construction entries here are some additional pics of the finished product for your viewing pleasure.

You can see above Amanda sizing up the pit and wishing there were a flame burning in it already.

A little confirmation, yes, the pit is level. 

Fire Pit Day 2

Alright, so here we are, day 2 of fire pit construction. I started of day two by removing the stones from the pit. It will soon become obvious why leveling yesterday may not have been necessary.

Once the stones were removed a trench needed to be dug. In moments, said trench was to be filled with gravel. The gravel will allow a bit of drainage from beneath the stones to keep water from building up, at least as much as would otherwise be the case.

Once the gravel was in place I tamped it down a bit to have a solid bed to lay the stones on. This was to help minimize settling later. Then it was time to replace the stones and begin the actual process of leveling the ring, and boy was that fun.

The leveling portion of the afternoon took about an hour and a half I would say. You can see me above with two levels, a bag of gravel, and my trusty rubber mallet. When doing such things, always use a rubber mallet, as it will not chip or crack the stone you are working with. Basically we were out to be sure that each individual stone was level as well as the stones next to each other to ensure that when complete the ring would be level and stable.

After a good deal of time and effort we were left with the level ring that you see below.

At this point we were able to start piling on the other layers. Between each layer we put a bead of masonry adhesive to ensure the blocks stay in place. You will want to make sure to apply a generous bead, but not too much.

Once we got to stacking on the final layers moving quickly became important. The adhesive gets tack pretty quickly. I would estimate that we got the final three layers in place in about ten minutes. Here is what we had immediately after the final layer was set.

Once the walls were in place we added several additional inches of gravel into the bottom of the pit and spread it about. So, there you have it. That is basically the construction of our fire pit. The only other thing we did was add some extra dirt around the pit and tamp it down to try to level the surrounding area a little.

The couple of pictures above are just some of the finishing touches, namely raking out the gravel in the bottom of the pit. All in all I would say a couple of afternoons well spent.

In case you were wondering the materials used were as follows:
-68 Blocks
-4 Bags of Gravel (.5 cubic yds. each)
-2 Tubes Masonry Adhesive

Of course there were a variety of tools used to carry out the job. They included:
-Axe
-Sledgehammer
-Shovel
-Tamp Tool
-Rake
-Mallet
-Levels
-Tape Measure

Fire Pit Day 1

So, we began the construction of our permanent fire pit yesterday, March 28. In all it would take about two afternoons (appx. 8 hours) to complete the build. The pit, is to be about 4' in diameter and about 16" tall. Of that 16" about 14" will be above grade. The bottom layer of stone will be partially buried for stability.

Now, off to the build...

I started off by digging out the area intended for construction. This phase of the build was characterized by a great deal of root and rock removal. Fun to be had, believe me. I then placed the stones to get an idea of the exact orientation and spacing we were going to be dealing with. After placed, site leveling phase one commenced, which retrospectively may not have been necessary.

This pretty much brings day one of pit construction to a close. The real action comes on day two. Dum dum dum...

Garden - Day 1

Day 1 (Sunday, March 27, 2011) of our garden begins.  We bought and planted seeds in an indoor gardening kit.  We planted:

• Carrots - Nantes Coreless
• Corn, Sweet - Early Sunglow Hybrid
• Peas - Alaska (wilt resistant)
• Pepper - Jalapeno M
• Tomato - Roma VF
• Pepper - Long Thin Cayenne
• Sunflowers - American giants
• Spruce (a while back we bought some "grow your own Christmas tree" kits from target for $1 a piece so we figure we might as well see what happens given room and a lid to prevent kitties from bothering them)

The indoor garden we used was a Jiffy planter that held 72 plants per tray with a lower tray for water collection and a clear lid (to prevent cats from ruining the plants).  We used one and a half trays to plant everything.  The planter when finished:

The peas are cold weather plant and can be seeded outside this time of year since they stop producing in the heat of summer so maybe we will plan to do that next year.

The indoor greenhouse plan is as follows:

We planned a 8'x12' garden in our yard by the shed.  It's the best place that is not in the way and that gets a good amount of sunlight.  The garden plan is as follows:

We have determined that the left corner of the garden (when facing it from the side of the fire pit) gets the least amount of sunlight so we might have to move the peas there so they don't get overwhelmed in the heat of summer.  We will see what the final plan is.  Stay tuned for our first seedling to burst through the soil.